How we made a paper fireplace out of a cardboard box for Christmas

This Christmas we made a fireplace out of a cardboard box and craft papers to sit behind the Christmas tree.  Our house does not have a fireplace and, being in Australia, there is no need for a fire at the time of year.  The reason to do this was for a fun team craft project.  As it was I ended up doing most of it.  I looked around for some instructions for both the fireplace and the garland but couldn't find much so I am sharing what we did.

I was inspired by this Pinterest photo.  I planned to do it as a flat piece of cardboard but when looking for a piece big enough I found an old box for a flatpack chair.  We decided to keep it as a box.  I covered (glued) the front with a few pieces of A3 yellow paper and then measured out the bricks on a few pieces of red A3 paper.  (I also saw some people use a sponge and red paint to make the bricks.)  I enjoyed gluing on the bricks.  It felt like bricklaying.  I left some yellow at the top.  I pasted on 4 smaller pieces of black paper to make the fireplace.

Then I had some yellow paper, some red and some stripey yellow/orange/red paper from an old calendar.  I cut them into thin wavy flames and a few shorter ones.  Arrange them on the black fireplace.  Most of the yellow should be pasted on first.  Also paste a few brown logs at the bottom of the fireplace.

The most difficult part for me was to make a paper garland to "hang" from the top of the fireplace.  I looked and looked online and finally looked at what I had cut from craft papers and old calendars.  The box was on its side so I could arrange the leaves and flowers in different configurations to check about having enough variety and enough foilage to make the garland.  I pasted the flowers in the middle and gradually pasted the leaves either side with a variety of green hues.

The fireplace looked fun behind the Christmas tree.  Because it was a box we were able to place decorations and cards on top of the fireplace.  Of course we call it the mantlepiece.  The cat was quite happy to sleep in the box.  We enjoyed saying that the cat was sleeping in the fireplace!

On Christmas Eve we hung the stockings by the fire with care.  (One for Sylvia and one for our cat.)  Actually it was rather inconvenient to try and hang the stockings because there was no place to hang them.  I just taped the stockings with duct tape to the top of the fireplace box.  They looked cute, though if the fire was real they would be burnt to smithereens.  The real problem came, according to Sylvia, when taking down the stockings.  Oops!  It seems the duct tape was a bit strong.

And here is our cat Shadow on Christmas Day looking like a fearsome large cat in front of a tiny tree and tiny fireplace.  You can tell by his hat that he thinks he is the king of the castle!